Appleton spa sues city for ruptured water main damage

The owner of Sunflower Spa wants the city to pay for $62,500 in damages caused by a ruptured water main that flooded her business in 2013.

Sunflower Spa, 1024 S. Olde Oneida St., filed a civil lawsuit against the city July 21. The spa’s owner, Lacy Hardy, said the city refused to pay for the $62,552 in cleanup costs, lost business and structural damages caused by the ruptured main.(Photo: Submitted)

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Owner seeking $62,552 in damages after ruptured water main flooded her business in 2013.

A city official said there were no prior issues with the main, which will be replaced in 2016.

APPLETON – An Appleton spa is suing the city after a broken municipal pipe flooded the business with 360,000 gallons of water last year.

Sunflower Spa, 1024 S. Olde Oneida St., filed a civil lawsuit against the city July 21. The spa's owner, Lacy Hardy, said the city refused to pay for the $62,552 in cleanup costs, lost business and structural damages caused by the ruptured main.

Hardy accuses the city of violating her federal and state constitutional rights by temporarily taking her property without compensation. She also sued the city for depriving her of all beneficial use of the property for two weeks and for negligent maintenance of the 88-year-old water main.

City officials declined to comment on specifics of the case, citing the ongoing litigation. The city does have plans to replace the Olde Oneida Street water main, although there have not been any issues with it prior to the Sunflower Spa incident, said Chad Doran, Appleton communications coordinator.

'They blew us off'

Hardy got a phone call from Appleton police on May 23, 2013, informing her the spa was flooded. The pipe burst around 5:30 a.m. and was shut off about 1½ hours later, she said.

"There was a 6-foot geyser like Old Faithful coming out (of the storm drain)," Hardy told Post-Crescent Media. "So 360,000 gallons of water were poured into my building. The water mark at our back door was 16 inches high."

Once a clean-up service vacuumed out the water, the spa closed for two weeks for repairs. Two layers of flooring had to be torn out, and drywall and baseboards were ruined. Hardy said she was lucky to find a flooring company that could squeeze in the project, or the business would have been closed longer.

Meanwhile, the city provided no assistance, Hardy said. A risk assessment employee checked the building and told Hardy she would have to file a complaint.

"They basically blew us off," Hardy said. "We had to beg them to come down to our building, because I wanted them to see the damages. I think they were thinking it was just a little bit of water."

Hardy's insurance did not cover the damage because the incident qualified as a flood, she said. Appleton denied her claim twice, first when she put in the requested complaint and a second time after she met with city officials.

"They said they did not know that main was going to break, so therefore they were not responsible," she said. "There was no help or support from the city of Appleton.

"The thing that sucks is the fact that there was nothing I could have done to prevent it, because I don't own that pipe."

Main scheduled for 2016 repairs

The Olde Oneida Street water main is scheduled to be replaced in 2016 as part of the Department of Public Works capital improvement program. The main's reconstruction from Oneida Street to South River Street is expected to cost $80,750, according to the city's five-year replacement program budget.

The main was installed in 1926, although there are other city water mains that are of a similar age or older, Doran said. Ruptures can be caused by a variety of factors such as what material the pipe is made of and how weather has affected it.

"We do want to point out that the age of that particular water main is not necessarily indicative of any potential issues," Doran said in an email. "Up until the incident in question, there was no history of complaints or maintenance issues with that particular water main."

In the meantime, Hardy said the city merely "put a Band-Aid" on the water main.

"Now I'm just worrying, 'Is this going to happen again?'" she said. "It wasn't like we had all this rain or anything. It wasn't a harsh winter. This is a lot of money that I had to put out to fix it, and it's not even fixed."

Hardy wants the city to pay for the damage the rupture cost her 10-year-old business, which she said is the worst thing she's dealt with for the spa.

"I just feel like it was very, very poorly handled," she said. "My beef is they can spend ($1.5 million) on Houdini Square, which looks nice and everything, but is it necessary? Probably not. But when it comes to infrastructure and things you don't see, there's no awareness."